SEC Says Former Executives Fudged the Books

WASHINGTON (CN) – AstroPower’s former CEO and CFO fraudulently recorded $4 million in revenue in order to meet their 2002 growth predictions, the Securities and Exchange Commission claims in Federal Court.

The SEC says former CEO Allen Barnett and former CFO Thomas Stiner committed accounting fraud by improperly recording four transactions in 2002: a contingent sale, a fictitious sale and two improper seller-initiated bill-and-hold transactions. Having the transactions on the books “had the effect of materially overstating AstroPower’s revenues and net income,” the lawsuit claims. Barnett and Stiner resigned in 2003, after a financial audit and internal investigation revealed improper accounting practices, the SEC claims. Barnett is now a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Delaware, while Stiner became a self-employed homebuilder.